Fern Allies . 
131 
CHAPTER XVII. 
FERN ALLIES. 
LYCOPODIUMS^ SELAGINELLAS, PEPPER- WORTS; HORSE- 
TAILS; AND MOSSES. 
OWEVER slightly the cultivator of ferns may 
he interested in their technical classification and 
botanical affinities; it is impossible to proceed far 
in the practice without being attracted by the beauties of 
certain plants which are not ferns; but cousins-german 
to them. A tuft of club moss in a marsh or of horsetail 
in a damp and tangled hedgerow will arrest attention, 
and the beginner may ask the question — “Is this a 
fern?” and when assured that it is not one, will pro- 
bably ask again, “What is it ?” In the greenhouse and 
the stove the moss-like selaginellas, usually called lyco- 
podiums, associate with ferns as their proper companions, 
requiring similar treatment and being obviously allied 
in structure and habits. On this border land there is 
entertainment for the curious ; a knowledge of the dis- 
tinctive character of the tribes of plants that haunt it 
will prove, like many other kinds of knowledge, abun- 
dantly remunerative to those who will earnestly seek it, 
and the lover of vegetable beauty, who may be indis- 
posed to pore over books or labour with the microscope 
will discover here many gratifications. 
